James M. Burns, Class of 1939

The breadth of your contribution to our nation’s understanding of its political history has been truly admirable. It includes your widely-used high school and college textbooks, your biographles (including the Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Franklin Roosevelt), your trilogy on The American Experiment, your continuing work on the subject of leadership, your presidency of the American Political Science Association, your involvement in the celebrations of the bicentennials of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, your frequent appearances on television and in the general press, and, now, your play on the dynamics of the Constitutional Convention. The great critical acclaim focused on your
work attests also to its depth, to the mix of thorough research and story-telling ability, to your masterful weaving together of social and political history, and to the passion and commitment that you have brought to the effort of safeguarding the guarantee of rights that stands among the noblest achievements of this nation’s founding institutions. To these accomplishments can be added your service as a member of the Hoover Commission, of the National War Labor Board, and as an offical combat historian during World War II in the Asian Theater of Operations. Here at Williams, however, we share with you the special pleasure of seeing so many of your former students, inspired during your more than four decades of teaching at the College, pursue distinguished, and in some cases highly visible, careers in political education. In recognition of your distlnguished achievement as political historian and educator, Williams College is proud to present you with its Bicentennial Medal.